Reading Europe celebrates Lithuania

 

Reading Europe celebrates Lithuania

 
READING EUROPE FROM UK INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS
There are 24 countries in the EU in addition to the 4 countries in the British Isles and Commonwealth. Before the EU Referendum let us take the opportunity to find out something more about fellow members and neighbours. The recommended titles have been selected to let the reader know the literature, history and culture of each country better. On 10 June we celebrate Lithuania.
 
RECOMMENDED TITLE FROM LITHUANIA
The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature edited by Almantas Samalavicius, translated by Jura Avizienis, Ada Mykote Valaitis and Jayde Will ISBN 978 1 909232 42 6, 250 pages, £9.99
Featuring the nation's greatest novelists and short storytellers, The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature shows how Lithuania's writers have reflected the country's development from an agrarian, Catholic society and its ability to survive the worst ideologies of the 20th century.
Powerful and arresting images - ranging from the funny and bizarre to the tragic and gut-wrenching - abound in the stories: a crippled man must endure the flirtations of 'hunchback-teasing women' fetching water from a village well;an angel becomes annoyed when stolen herring is allowed into heaven;a frozen Lithuanian hand nailed to a raft floats down an icy Siberian river;a child tries in vain to wake the victims of a mass execution...
Demonstrating the vitality and power of Lithuanian literature, this anthology also engenders respect for the endurance of an entire nation.